IT'S REALLY HAPPENING!!

We filled out our very first piece of paper to start this adoption process in June of 2011.  That same month our girls were brought to an orphanage thousands of miles away, in the beautiful country of Haiti.  We didn't know who they were yet, but God did.  He had called us to this adoption process and we stepped out in faith.  We had NO IDEA what all this process would entail, or how long it would take, but God did.  He had every step, every detail, in His hands, all throughout this very long and often arduous journey.

Today, November 12, 2013...the very last step, the very last paperwork necessary for our girls to be able to come home was completed successfully.  In just a couple of days, our orphanage will pick up the Visas that will allow our girls to become legally ours according to the US government.  Then they will pick up our IBESR exit letter and we will have everything we need to finally bring them home.

God has been faithful every moment of every day, even when we lost faith or doubted His plan.  This is really just the beginning of his plan for Chelley and Naika to be part of our family.  We all have major, life-changing, and often difficult transitions ahead of us.  I will be blogging more about that in the days before we leave to pick them up.  For now, we are rejoicing that we are finally able to count the days until our girls will be in our arms and in our family forever!!

Today was one of the most stressful days of our adoption process thus far...which is saying a lot!!  Trusting God is a lesson to learn over and over each day, or each hour, or each minute and even though He is faithful in all he does, it was hard for me to rest in that today as we waited to hear the results of this final step.

Finally, at 12:40 pm, we received word from our orphanage that their Visa appts were successful and that we could come to pick up our girls NEXT WEEK...Fri., Nov. 22nd through Mon. Nov. 25th!!!! We will leave Rochester on Thurs., the 21st and get as far as Miami that night.  We'll get to spend the night in Miami celebrating with the 3 other families that will be traveling with us to pick up their sweet kids from GLA as well.  This will be such a blessing and is a huge answer to prayer that we will be able to experience this with these other families that have become so dear to us over the last several months.  Then we fly from Miami to Port au Prince early in the morning on Fri, the 22nd.  By 10:30 am Eastern time, we should be holding our girls in our arms!!!  And this time we won't have to say goodbye!! 

We will get to do some shopping at a local market and get to tour the new building site for GLA about 40 minutes farther up in the mountains.   We will get to go to church with our kids at GLA and will have time for them to say goodbye to their nannies and friends and vice-versa.  It will be a whirlwind trip, an emotional roller coaster, and a monumental life change all rolled into one weekend!!  Then on Monday, the 25th, we will leave GLA, fly from Port au Prince to Miami and then on to Chicago.  We will stay in Chicago that evening and then fly home to Rochester in the morning on Tues., the 26th.  For those of you who are counting, this is 2 days before Thanksgiving, and 6 days before Naika's 3rd birthday.  We are thanking God for hearing the prayers of our heart to allow us to spend Naika's birthday with her!!  And we are amazed that we'll be celebrating one of the most meaningful Thanksgivings ever with our entire family whole and together.  God truly does delight in giving His children the most amazing and precious gifts!!

There are so many more details I could share right now and so many important things that need to be shared about our upcoming transition.  I promise I will be sharing more posts in the next 9 days that will help you know how to be praying for us and for ALL of our girls, as well as ways that you can be helpful as we navigate these major changes in our life and family.  For now, thank you, from the bottom of our hearts for walking with us on this journey and for sharing in our joy as we close one chapter and prepare to begin a brand new adventure. 

Donations needed for our amazing orphanage...

Can you imagine the quantities of food, toiletries, school supplies, toys, and other necessities that are needed to provide for the basic needs of 140 kids on a daily basis? Can you imagine trying to do this on a purely donation basis in the poorest country in the Western hemisphere?  That is what our AMAZING orphanage, God's Littlest Angels, does and has been doing for so many precious children in Haiti for decades.  The cost of sending shipping containers to Haiti is prohibitive, although they do that when necessary.  Once in Haiti, items can be held up in customs for months and can cost significantly more due to customs taxes and other fees.  So, what is the best way for GLA to receive the donations they need?  It is for adoptive families and volunteers to bring the needed items down with them when they travel!

We are hoping to fill an extra bag or two filled with donations when we go to pick up our girls but we need your help to fill those bags.  I've received 2 separate lists of needs from GLA...one for the Main house where the littlest ones are and where Naika has spent the majority of her life and one for the Toddler house where the bigger kids are and where Chelley has called home for the last 2 1/2 years.

On the Toddler house list, the best place to focus would be on the gifts, crafts, and decorations that they need for Christmas.  I know many other families have received quite a few donations from the list of necessary toiletries but I haven't heard about an abundance of Christmas gifts or decorations that are heading down with other families. GLA goes out of their way to make Christmas special for the kids and each child has their own wrapped gift to open.  That's A LOT of kids and a lot of gifts!  Seeing Chelley and her friends with their gifts last year was so comforting, knowing that we couldn't be celebrating with her...it was so nice to know that she did get to have a wonderful Christmas celebration due to the generosity of other people.  Would you please consider blessing the kids at GLA and their waiting adoptive families by purchasing a Christmas gift or two?

For more glimpses of last year's Christmas celebration, you can check out this GLA blog...http://godslittlestangelsinhaiti.org/kidzkorner/2012/12/joyeux-noel/


If you are interested in donating any of the items on these lists, please give us a call or send me an email or facebook message.  The clothing and shoes could be gently used if they are in good condition.  If you are local, you could bring the items to our house or bring them to us at church sometime between now and November 16th.  (We need time to pack and figure out how to fit these donations in with our personal items and what we need to bring for the girls.)  If you are not local but you would still like to contribute, we could also accept financial donations (of any amount) that I could then use to purchase some of the requested items. 

Thank you for all the many, many ways that you have supported us along this journey and we also appreciate any way that you can support these precious children that call GLA home.

Without further ado...here are the lists of needs:

Main House Needs List   (as of 7 October 2013)

• Bar soap
• Shea/cocoa butter lotion
• Pediasure-powder
• Diaper rash cream
• Ora-gel (teething gel)
• Extra small crib sheets
• Sippy cups
• Rubber band hair elastics (NOT the ouchless plastic kind)
• Clorox/disinfectant wipes
• Boys shoes/sandals sizes 5-10
• Boys pants 2T/3T

Office Supplies

• Legal pads
• Printer Ink Cartridges
  • HP 564 series (photo, black & color)
  • Cannon 220 series (black)
    
    
     
    GLA Toddler House Needs List
    (Current as of 20 Sept 2013)
    Kids Hygiene:
    Lotion – Cocoa Butter & Shea Butter
    Bar Soap
    Deodorant
    Toothpaste
    Hair Clippers
    
    
    Christmas (COMING FAST!):
    Christmas Gifts – appropriate for ages 5-12 yrs
    Christmas Craft Kits/Items – Glitter, Foam Sheets, Stickers, Pipe Cleaners, Jingle Bells, etc
    Christmas Lights (for in the kids’ rooms and the play yard)
    Christmas Decorations (for in the kids’ rooms and on their tree)
    
    
    Fun Stuff:
    Candy – Chewy Candy or something with a stick, like lollipops, no choking hazards
    Balloons
    Stickers
    Yard toys with wheels – Skateboard, scooter, roller-skates
    Chapter books (in English) of all reading levels
    
    
    Clothing:
    Crib Sheets (32x52 or larger for all the toddler bunk beds)
    Boys dress pants or Khakis for church – sizes 5 -12
    Boys Polos or button up shirts for church – sizes 5-10
    Dress Shoes for Church – Boys and Girls sizes Youth 2-5
    Sandals – Play Sandals for everyday use (not crocs) – sizes Toddler 7-13, Youth 1-5
    
    

Another Amazing Miracle!!

My friends...God has worked another miracle of amazing timing in this end of our adoption process and we are soooooo excited!!  For those of you that haven't heard, our file was submitted to USCIS for the Visa process last Wednesday, October 23rd.  As I'd mentioned in my last post, several other families had just received their approval last week after 3 weeks and we were hoping for that amount of time or less to receive word of our 1600 approval.

This afternoon, I opened my email to find this amazing and joy-inducing news...

"Dear Mr. and Mrs. Saski,

USCIS in Port au Prince, Haiti is pleased to inform you that the I-600 petitions, which you filed at this office on May 22, 2013 on behalf of Naika Charles and Chelley Charles, seeking to qualify them as your immediate relatives have been approved. Your case has been transferred to the Adoption Unit of the Consular Section for the visa process. This completes all action by USCIS on the referenced petitions. The Consular Section will soon contact you to follow-up on your case."

5 DAYS, PEOPLE!!! 5 DAYS!!! That is how long it took us to receive this approval!!  Once again, God has blessed us with a miracle and we couldn't be more excited or grateful.  It's really starting to feel REAL.  We REALLY will be going to get our girls very soon!!!

Now, we are waiting to hear when our Visa appointment will be scheduled that the girls will attend with a representative from our orphanage.  We hope to hear that information in the next few days and we assume that the appointment will be scheduled out about 7-10 days.  Our appt could be as early as November 6th or 7th, which means that it is theoretically possible that we could be headed to Haiti as early as November 14th.  If not that week, then probably the following week.  We'll know a lot more by the end of this week.  

There are MANY families all at this point that are all chomping at the bit to go and get our kiddos!  GLA is going to have to be creative to get us all down there as soon as possible and fit us all in the guest house and in their vans!  So, we'll try to wait patiently for our turn and will trust that God has the very smallest details of this end of our journey in His hands.  It would appear that He is still working to answer the cry of our hearts to be with Naika on her birthday...most likely HERE, ALL TOGETHER AS A FAMILY!!  Wow!!

Praising God for all that HE HAS DONE and IS DOING in fulfilling this call of our family to adopt these unbelievably precious little girls.

We'll keep you posted as we know more details about these next few weeks...